News of the world to close

[earthJoker]

News of the World to close amid hacking scandal

This Sunday's edition of The News of the World will be its last, News International chairman James Murdoch has said, after days of increasingly damaging allegations against the paper.

The weekly tabloid is accused of hacking into the mobile phones of crime victims, celebrities and politicians.

On Thursday, the Met Police said it was seeking to contact 4,000 possible targets named in seized documents.

The UK's biggest selling paper has been in circulation for 168 years.

The News of the World, which sells about 2.8million copies a week, is famed for its celebrity scoops and sex scandals, earning it the nickname, the News of the Screws.

Downing Street has said it had no role or involvement in the closure decision.

Mr Murdoch said no advertisements would run in this weekend's paper - instead any advertising space would be donated to charities and good causes, and proceeds from sales would also go to good causes.

News International has refused to comment on rumours that the Sun could now become a seven-day-a-week operation.

"What happens to the Sun is a matter for the future," a spokeswoman for News International said. The Sun, another News International tabloid, is currently published from Monday to Saturday.

The spokeswoman also refused to say whether the 200 or so employees at the paper would be made redundant, saying: "They will be invited to apply for other jobs in the company."

The News of the World's political editor, David Wooding, who joined 18 months ago, said it was a fantastic paper.

"They cleared out all the bad people. They bought in a great new editor, Colin Myler, and his deputy, Victoria Newton, who had not been sullied by any of the things that had gone on in the past.

"And there's nobody there, there's hardly anybody there who was there in the old regime.

"The people are very clean, great, talented professional journalists and we pull out a great paper every week. And we're all paying the price for what happened six years ago by a previous regime."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14070733

I though the closure of the 168 year old UK's most selling paper deserves its own thread.

This looks really nasty, seems that this is just the beginning.

[Loki]

Considering the severity of the crimes committed, I really don't have any sympathy for the paper. I hope we'll see a lot of its executives in jail in the near future.

[RandBlade]

Phone hacking allegations have been around for years, confined with politicians, celebrities and the monarchy. Was wrong, but not too bothered about that.

The news earlier this week that missing (later discovered murdered) schoolgirly Milly Dowler had her phone hacked and they'd not just listened to the voicemails but deleted some because the mailbox was full and thus allow more to come through ... that was sick, sick, sick and interfering with evidence in an ongoing investigation to a missing girl. Then for it to come out they'd hacked into victims of 7/7 and families of deceased soldiers, etc, etc, etc ... far more serious and wrong than hacking into the mailbox of Sienna Miller even if that had originally been wrong.

I'm amazed Rebecca Brooks is still in her job. She should surely go.

The Screws was just one of many papers to have such allegations, though they have had the most attention for years. Investigative journalism and a free press is good, this is not that though.

[Timbuk2]

Yes Rebekah Brooks holding on to her job, among the rest of senior management, is farcical. Yet a lot of the ordinary workers will lose their jobs, most of whom had nothing whatsoever to do with the hacking scandal, or weren't around at the time.

News of the World will shut, and a new, identical, rebranded version called The Sun on Sunday will follow several months later. News International won't lose a penny overall.

It's a fucking joke.

The comments page on the BBC is making for interesting reading, with politicians, News International staff and public commentators chipping in:

~

Reaction is coming in to the announcement that Sunday's issue of the News of the World will be the last edition of the paper.

It follows claims the paper authorised hacking into mobile phones including those of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and the families of 7/7 bombing victims.

In a statement to staff, News International chairman James Murdoch said the good things the paper does "have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong - indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company".

James Murdoch, News International chairman
Rebekah [Brooks] and I are absolutely committed, this company is committed, to doing the right thing and what that means is about co-operating and working fully with the police investigations into those alleged practices and into those activities. It's also about putting into place the processes, so that we understand what happened and we have a process in place to make sure these things don't happen again. I'm satisfied that Rebekah, her leadership of this business and her standard of ethics and her standard of conduct throughout her career are very good."

News of the World editor Colin Myler
"This is the saddest day of my professional career. For 168 years the News of the World has been a huge part of many peoples' lives. Sundays without this great British institution will not be the same."

Ed Miliband, Labour leader
"It's a big decision but I don't think it solves the problem. Because after all lots of people are losing their jobs today but one of the people who's remaining in her job is the chief executive of News International who was the editor at the time ... What I'm interested in is not closing down newspapers. I'm interested in those who were responsible being brought to justice and those who had responsibility for the running of that newspaper taking their responsibility and I don't think those two things have happened today."

Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, which investigated phone hacking
"Mr Murdoch blames 'wrongdoers' who 'turned a good newsroom bad'. He does not say who these wrongdoers were - and that is the crucial question people will be asking, including those who are paying with their jobs and who are angry about the loss of a 168-year-old newspaper title."

Dan Wootton, NoW showbiz editor
You ask any journalist at the News of World about the allegations that have been made over the last week and we are disgusted. We are not reading about the newspaper we work for today - it's a brilliant newspaper and that's what is so sad about this. It was a decision that, we have been told, was made at board level in New York - that's the explanation that's been given to us. What we are sad about is our readers will no longer get the newspaper that they love and that they buy in their droves... For us, we didn't see this coming. Why the decision has been made, for the staff at the News of the World, is irrelevant to be honest. We are just devastated."

Tom Watson, Labour MP
"Let's be clear about this, this paper has closed but the hacking saga has not. The issue for me today is not whether Rupert Murdoch closes a paper that was going to go bankrupt because there are no advertisers or readers left, it is whether Rebekah Brooks is going to consider her position and resign as chief executive of News International.

"The anger will only subside when a very senior executive in this company takes responsibility for this heinous attack on British people."

Dowler family solicitor Mark Lewis
Mr Lewis told Sky News the newspaper's closure "won't make any difference at all to anybody's civil claims".

"Any crimes, any phone hacking, any other activities that were done weren't done by the News of the World, they were done by people working for it," he told Sky News. It's sad that other people have been sacrificed, will lose their jobs, but the people who are responsible are still there."

David Wooding, NoW political editor
"We knew we were in a bad place but we never expected a bombshell as big as this," he told the BBC News Channel.

He said hacking had happened under an entirely different group of staff, and added: "Hard-working journalists will carry the can for a previous regime."

Downing Street spokesman
"What matters is that all wrongdoing is exposed and those responsible for these appalling acts are brought to justice. As the prime minister has made clear, he is committed to establishing rigorous public inquiries to make sure this never happens in our country again."

Max Clifford, publicist
"They were obviously aware of not only the tremendous damage done to the News of the World but also News International by recent allegations.

"My belief is that there is a lot more to come - I think that is why the decision was taken to pull the plug."

Paul McMullan, former NoW features editor
"At one point it was selling nearly eight million copies and nearly every adult member in Britain, person, used to read it and there it is - gone."

Peter Preston, former Guardian editor
"The story isn't by any means over yet. This was a big bang but there will be plenty of pops along the road."

Hugh Grant, actor
"The News of the World was going out of business anyway, people were not going to buy it on Sunday, advertisers were falling out in their droves ... I think we should see this for what it is. It's a very cynical managerial manoeuvre which has put several hundred, not evil, people ... out of work and he's kept in particular one woman who was the editor [at the time] in a highly paid job."

Ken Clarke, Justice Secretary
On the news of the closure, Mr Clarke said: "All they're going to do is rebrand it."

John Prescott, former deputy prime minister
"It's a typical management stunt from Mr Murdoch. What he does is he gets rid of problems and in this case nobody in senior management ... none of those go but the poor old workers at the News of the World are going and there's no doubt it will become the Sunday Sun."

Rose Gentle, mother of British serviceman killed in Iraq
"The News of the World are the only journalists that we ever had bad dealings with. I'm glad that they're gone, but it doesn't mean we're going to give up the fight to find out if our families' phones were hacked."

John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee
"We still need to get to the bottom of what went on. If necessary, prosecutions should follow. I think we still need to find out what happened,"

Piers Morgan, former News of the World editor
"Shocked and saddened by closure of the News of the World," said Mr Morgan on Twitter.

"Scandals of past week indefensible, but has been a great British newspaper."

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former communications director
"At various stages they could and should have dealt with this ... As a former journalist I don't rejoice over the death of a newspaper but I do think that this is just the result of all the illegal activity but also the huge mismanagement of it ever since this started."

Chris Bryant, Labour MP
"This is designed to try and protect Rebekah Brooks, and I believe that if she had a shred of decency after what we have heard about Milly Dowler's phone being hacked, which happened on her watch as editor, she should have resigned by now ... This strategy of chucking first journalists, then executives and now a whole newspaper overboard isn't going to protect the person at the helm of the ship."

Conservative minister Chris Grayling
"Today's decision, to my mind, is almost immaterial to the key goal right now and that is to understand who is responsible for what has happened, for them to be properly investigated by the police and put before the courts."

Ivan Lewis, shadow culture secretary
"There are some really good guys who work at the News of the World right now. I feel very sorry for those people. They are paying the price for the past. They are paying the price for a company at the highest levels that was so arrogant, so failed in its responsibilities to take the allegations seriously and clean out the stables."

Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith
"It has got to be a good day for Britain. I think the News of the World as an organisation is toxic on almost every level. I think the country after Sunday will be a better place.

Michelle Stanistreet, National Union of Journalists
"This shows the depths to which Rupert Murdoch and his lieutenants at News International are prepared to stoop. The announcement James Murdoch should be making today is the dismissal of Rebekah Brooks as chief executive of News International... Closing the title and sacking over 200 staff in the UK and Ireland, and putting scores more freelances and casuals out of a job, is an act of utter cynical opportunism."

Don Foster MP - Lib Dem media spokesman
"This is a commercial decision that will affect many staff who had nothing to do with the phone hacking scandal. We need to find out the full extent of the phone hacking scandal and of the alleged police corruption and see those responsible for these vile actions prosecuted before we can close this dark chapter in British media history."

[Steely Glint]

What I find difficult to believe is that the Jews of the World is this bad where the other papers are somehow untainted. Tip of the iceberg, mark my words.

[Loki]

I don't really feel sorry for the reporters who worked for that paper. They made their careers by taking advantage of the misery of other people, frequently by violating their privacy. In fact, I can't think of any legal career that's more evil than that of tabloid journalist.

[Timbuk2]

I don't really feel sorry for the reporters who worked for that paper. They made their careers by taking advantage of the misery of other people, frequently by violating their privacy. In fact, I can't think of any legal career that's more evil than that of tabloid journalist.

With the possible exception of a pap, but that's along a similar vein.

[Loki]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/wo...agewanted=1&hp

[earthJoker]

“ ‘Fat, Jealous’ Clare Brands Page 3 Porn” was The Sun’s headline in response. Its editor, Rebekah Wade (now Rebekah Brooks and the chief executive of News International, Mr. Murdoch’s British subsidiary), sent a busload of semi-dressed models to jeer at Ms. Short at her house in Birmingham. The paper stuck a photograph of Ms. Short’s head over the body of a topless woman and found a number of people to declare that, in fact, they thoroughly enjoyed the sexy photographs. “Even Clare has boobs, but obviously she’s not proud of them like we are of ours,” it quoted a 22-year-old named Nicola McLean as saying.

This would not be allowed here, it goes totally against personal rights and there is absolutely no reason why such a thing should be protected by "free press".

[Dreadnaught]

This would not be allowed here, it goes totally against personal rights and there is absolutely no reason why such a thing should be protected by "free press".

What personal/privacy right is being trampled here? I think it's offensive and stupid, but dumb and aggressive media shouldn't be banned because it makes people uncomfortable. If it made people too uncomfortable they would simply stop reading.

[Timbuk2]

Hugh Grant becomes an unlikely crusading hero.



I do like the guy, I really do.

[Loki]

Because everyone was afraid of being next.

[earthJoker]

Well this is hopefully going to end. But the public UK seemed to lack a counter weight to this kind of press for a long time, not only in politics.

[RandBlade]

Well this is hopefully going to end. But the public UK seemed to lack a counter weight to this kind of press for a long time, not only in politics.

Oh boo hoo, the poor powerless lawmakers have no counterweight to the press? Cut it out.

I'm no fan of the NoW but I'm worried that the powerful will use this as an opportunity now try and swing the balance away from free speech.

I'd rather have the likes of the NoW warts and all, than a weak and muzzled and defferential press.

[earthJoker]

Ha ha, don't you believe it. The NotW wouldn't have been the best selling paper in the UK if people didn't fundamentally like their style of 'journalism'.

That's the point. The Brits somehow see it OK to get their privacy rights stripped away. Of course it's your choice, even it might have some troubles to stays in the EU if you have to leave the EU if you want to get rid of all privacy rights.

Oh boo hoo, the poor powerless lawmakers have no counterweight to the press? Cut it out.

Yes it pretty much seems that the politics was incapable to handle the situation until the shit hit the fan.

I'm no fan of the NoW but I'm worried that the powerful will use this as an opportunity now try and swing the balance away from free speech.

I'd rather have the likes of the NoW warts and all, than a weak and muzzled and defferential press.

And violating the privacy rights of celebrities and hacking into phoneboxes is needed by a free press because?

I'd rather have the tabloid in check by clear stated rights than by some mogul with his own political agenda.

[Steely Glint]

That's the point. The Brits somehow see it OK to get their privacy rights stripped away. Of course it's your choice, even it might have some troubles to stays in the EU if you have to leave the EU if you want to get rid of all privacy rights.

That really isn't the point: the point was that people seem to have an enduring fascination for salacious gossip about the private lives of celebrities. If people didn't want to read that shit, the newspapers wouldn't print it and if it didn't sell like hotcakes they wouldn't resort to such desperate means to get the stories. If the NotW had actually gotten anything story-worthy from hacking Millie Dowlers phone and printed it, I doubt there would have been any shortage of people buying the issue.

[Steely Glint]

Ha ha, don't you believe it. The NotW wouldn't have been the best selling paper in the UK if people didn't fundamentally like their style of 'journalism'.

[Loki]

Yeah, because that's the alternative.

[RandBlade]

Yeah, because that's the alternative.

That's the alternative that would suit a lot of politicians and other rich and powerful people, yes.

[Loki]

And it's an alternative that has any chance of being enacted.

[RandBlade]

Given how we're talking in another thread about how the French press were too timid to publish about DSK etc - yes it is a possibility.

Given the long standing principle of "truth is a defence" has been trampled in recent years under the notion of "privacy" - yes it is a possibility.

I may not agree with what you say but I'll defend to the death your right to say it

The NoW's extreme tactics brought a lot of criminals to justice. Within the last year if it wasn't for them we'd probably have never found out about the corrupt Pakistani cricketers. It was their vulgar populism that allowed it to be the English speaking worlds most read paper* and meant it could afford expensive stings like that.

* So they claim. I'd have thought something American like the NYT etc was given how much more population your nation has.

[Loki]

You seem to think that the press should be within its rights to violate libel, slander, and privacy laws.

Would you rather the cricketers not get caught or have your press engage in illegal activities to uncover the fraud?

[RandBlade]

You seem to think that the press should be within its rights to violate libel, slander, and privacy laws.

No, I do not. I said "truth is a defence" so that rules out the first two. It can't be libel/slander if its true.

As for privacy, I think free speech should trump privacy.

Would you rather the cricketers not get caught or have your press engage in illegal activities to uncover the fraud?

Anyone who's commited illegal activities should be charged.

[Aimless]

Hey guys is it okay to break into a house to prove it's not safe?

[Loki]

So you're fine with the examples mentioned in the NY Times piece?

Thanks for the dodging the question. Would you prefer a crime went unpunished or the criminals were caught due to illegal acts committed by the media?

[RandBlade]

So you're fine with the examples mentioned in the NY Times piece?

Ethically or legally? Legally I have no objection. Which do you think are or should be illegal?

Thanks for the dodging the question. Would you prefer a crime went unpunished or the criminals were caught due to illegal acts committed by the media?

Neither.

[Aimless]

I am appalled by the opinions espoused in this thread. Hacking phones is "okay" if done by the "press" and the phones're eg. Sienna Miller's or if it's to expose "shenanigans", but hacking sites and e-mail accounts is not if it's done by eg. various members of Anonymous or it's Sony's even if it "exposes" the incompetence with which Sony has "guarded" very sensitive info belonging to millions of customers? Can you say "bias"?

[Steely Glint]

I am appalled by the opinions espoused in this thread. Hacking phones is "okay" if done by the "press" and the phones're eg. Sienna Miller's or if it's to expose "shenanigans", but hacking sites and e-mail accounts is not if it's done by eg. various members of Anonymous or it's Sony's even if it "exposes" the incompetence with which Sony has "guarded" very sensitive info belonging to millions of customers? Can you say "bias"?

Which thread is this?

[GGT]

Geez, makes me wonder what the Murdoch enterprise has been doing in the US. Fox "News" for starters, then moving onto the Wall Street Journal.

[GGT]

The thread where The World is Ending?